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Bulgaria’s Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (EWRC) has said that it has ended the proceedings to withdraw the operating licence of the local power distributions subsidiary of Austrian firm EVN.

The regulator gave no formal reason for its decision, which was taken at a closed meeting on August 4 and would be made public at a later date, once all information protected by law is redacted.

Neither did EWRC mention the status of the similar proceedings against the country’s two other electricity distribution companies, owned by Czech CEZ and Energo-Pro, but a report by public broadcaster Bulgarian National Radio said that the regulator is yet to reach a decision in those cases.

The proceedings against the three companies were started at the time of the Plamen Oresharski government, in March 2014, and were seen as an attempt by that administration to pressure the companies into ending their practice of offsetting payments owed to state electricity utility NEK.

At the time, NEK branded such practices unlawful, while the companies said that the money they withheld from NEK were compensation for the state utility’s failure to pay the power distribution companies for the mandatory purchase of electricity generated by renewable energy firms – which EVN, CEZ and Energo-Pro are required to buy by law.

(Photo: Clive Leviev-Sawyer)

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